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Advanced Literary Theory

Seminar 6: Feminism

For the seminar you should all do the following:

THEORY

Rivkin and Ryan, Feminist Paradigms (LTA 765-69). Hlne Cixous, Sorties (on Fronter). Luce Irigaray, The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of the

Feminine, (LTA 795-98).

Excerpt from Gilbert and Gubars The Madwoman in the Attic (LTA 812-25).LITERATURE

King Lear, The Bluest Eye, and Elizabeth Bishops Roosters (CompletePoems 35-39).

Theory

1. Read the Introduction to Feminism, entitled Feminist Paradigms (LTA 765-69).Explain the difference between the so-called constructionist and essentialist

perspectives within feminist literary critical discussions. Outline the arguments of

each side, and name the prominent writers who represent these two different

approaches.

2. Luce Irigaray holds that the subject of knowledge and reason is always defined in thewestern tradition as masculine. In The Power of Discourse and the Subordination ofthe Feminine, she suggests how women can disrupt the way in which the feminine

is defined in discourse as lack, deficiency, or as imitation and negative image of the

subject (LTA 796). What are the strategies Irigaray proposes for disrupting the

power of male discourse?

3. In her article Sorties (LTA 578-84), Hlne Cixous calls for a breaking down of thehierarchical dual oppositions set up by male rationalist philosophy. What are some of

these hierarchic opposites? How does Cixous propose that these be broken down?

Outline her argument.

4. Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic (LTA 812-25) focus on the issueof women writers entry into a tradition dominated by images that do violence to

women. They argue: Before the woman writer can journey through the looking

glass toward literary autonomy . . . she must come to terms with the images on the

surface of the glass, with [] those mythic masks male artists have fastened over her

human face both to lessen their dread of her inconstancy and by identifying her

with the eternal types they have themselves invented to possess her more

thoroughly (LTA 812). What are the images she has to come to terms with? How

do G & G suggest she does this? What is the so-called inconstancy in women that

men are so afraid of? Describe the eternal types that they claim woman is

imprisoned by. Do you agree with their analysis?

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Theory in Practice

The groups below should be prepared to initiate the discussions of the following literary

works, by applying selected theoretical ideas (see Ryans readings and suggestions in

LTPIfor examples of how to apply different feminist theories):

Gr 1:

How might Cixouss and Irigarays views be used in a feminist reading ofKing

Lear? (Consider the fact that Cordelias death is necessary for Lears

redemption).

Gr 2:

Develop the suggestion for a feminist reading of The Bluest Eye as suggested by

Ryan (on Fronter).

Gr 3:Initiate a discussion of Elizabeth Bishops poem, Roosters (Poems 35-39) from

a feminist perspective. Develop the reading suggested by Ryan (LTPI146).